OLD FASHIONED VIRTUES

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1930, Page 9

OLD FASHIONED VIRTUES

INDUSTRY AND THRIFT

EFFECT OF “ART UNION GAMBLES”

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES LOST.

(By Wire —Special to News.) Auckland, Last- Night.

“Art union gambles” was the heading of part of Archdeacon Mac Murray’s charge to the Anglican Synod this morning, and he denounced them as bein<r inimical to industry and thrift. “Lately,” said the archdeacon, “there has been an orgy of gambling fostered in the Dominion and sanctioned by the Government under the name of art unions. The name art union is only a sham to cover a hardly disguised gamble. At a time of world-wide depression, in ■which our own country shares, any scheme which appeals to the “get-rich-quick” is likely to have a greedy response, and thereby many are led to think that the old-fashioned virtues of industry and thrift are out of date. It is well to remember that the so-called art unions do not add , one penny to the resources of the Dominion. They only shift the contributions of the many into the pockets of the one or two who are winners. “The main evil lies in the moral effect on the community in leading it to forget that work and thrift are fundamental. principles of progress stamped upon the lives of men, and it is this which makes the unemployment of thia age not only deplorable from a humanitarian and economic point of view, but terribly sad from a moral standpoint. The moral effect of compulsory idleness, especially upon the young, is so great that both Chui ch and State should endeavour to solve the problem if a solution can be found, as I think it may be found if the principles laid down by Christ were accepted and acted upon by both rich and poor. The themselves cannot solve this problem any more than can the poor alone, butbwhen rich and poor co-operate to apply the principles of Christ to the problems of life the solution will be found.